For many students, the hottest spot on a Friday night is the Internet. With Thefacebook.com, Friendster, MySpace and the ubiquitous AOL Instant Messenger software all competing for people’s online social lives, it’s a wonder that students even leave their dorm rooms at all. It takes something exciting to make these hermits get up and dance – that something is free shared music.
The software of choice for students who play music on their computer is Apple’s iTunes, available for free downloading on the Apple Web site. In addition to playlists and CD-burning functions, it automatically searches out other users on the same network, letting people peruse others’ libraries and play their songs. With instantaneous access to thousands of songs, who needs Kazaa?
“Using iTunes has saved me the hassle of downloading,” said Lauren Stienstra, a second-year student. “If I hear something I like, I can just play it from their computer, and it saves me CDs, space on my hard drive and anxiety about getting caught. I listen to country music, and it’s easy to find people who like the same thing through the program.”
The service provided by iTunes is simply streaming audio, a legal listening method, and the convenience of the software is hard to deny.
“I like being able to listen to something in a friend’s room and then just come back to my room and put it on while I study,” said Stienstra.
With the ethernet connection offered by UCLA housing, entire floors are on the same network. Last year in Dykstra Hall, for instance, iTunes software on Jay Lubow’s computer in Room 820 not only picked up the music of people on his side of the hall, but extended its reach to Kristen Kang’s computer on the ninth floor. Lubow, a microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, and Kang, a second-year music student, discovered a mutual love for both the Spice Girls and Beethoven, and their friendship blossomed.
“I started browsing his files one day and we talked on AIM. I had a computer problem so I came downstairs to have him help me and met him and his roommate,” said Kang, whose socializing is restricted by a busy schedule that includes hours of music classes, practice time and concerts in addition to her General Education requirements.
Lauren Clark has a similar story about one of her floor-mates.
“She lived way down the hall from me and we never really talked until one day when I noticed that she’d begun sharing her music,” Clark said. “I ran into her waiting for the elevator once and instantly started in on a rant about how great her taste in music was, and how it made me sad when she turned it off at night.”
The two spent the next day together, bonding over Girl Scout cookies and Nick Drake.
This trend has spread beyond UCLA, as other schools have discovered the potential of iTunes. Matt Levitt of the University of Pennsylvania met his girlfriend through the software.
“I was looking to see if there were any kids with good taste in my dorm, and I came across a user with Wilco and Ryan Adams, two of my favorites,” said Levitt. “I found out she was right down the hall, so I walked over to talk about the bands we both liked and we hit it off.”
The two have been going strong ever since then. Though similar taste in music is not the only ingredient for a successful relationship, a great soundtrack can only complement a great romance.
Finding friends in college can sometimes be a daunting process. Despite the multitudes of friendly faces in dorms and classrooms, it’s easy for new students to become intimidated and retreat into their rooms. As students find themselves heading to their computers this fall to put their headphones on, there could be a potential friend doing the same thing down the hall.